Help Me?
by BethSHeartbeat
Summary: Jean's on her way to meet James when she meets a young girl, as the girl is fighting to beat her demons, Jean is on a mission to make everything better but with James fighting her on this because of Charlie, can she fix the situation and will the girl be okay? *TRIGGER WARNING*
1. Chapter 1

She sat on the edge of the bridge, her feet dangling over the water below. This seemed like the only way forward, the only way to stop them, to stop the constant picking. Anyway, who'd really care if she did it? Her parents clearly didn't care or she wouldn't have been with the foster carers, they wouldn't care either, it would be far easier for them to be without her. From somewhere she could hear a voice chanting coward over and over again, getting louder and louder before she finally stood up. Taking a further step forward towards the edge of the bridge, she sighed as she looked down at her fate below.

"Go on, do it. No one will miss you anyway."

"No one wants you, why would they want a fat ugly lump like you?"

She took a final look around as she voices became louder and the abuse more vile, still she couldn't see anyone. That was the worst bit, if she could see who it was then maybe she could fight back?

"Leave me alone!" The girl shouted as she burst into tears and looked back at the water below her.

"You think we'll go just because you ask us to? Why would we listen to a nutter like you?" Came a reply moments later.

* * *

Jean walked quietly through the dark city on her way to meet her husband, James, at a restaurant for their anniversary. He'd left notes around the house telling her where to meet him, all of which had added to her excitement levels. From out of no where she heard a scream, she looked around and saw nothing. Silence engulfed Oxford again but only for a couple of minutes until it was replaced by the sounds of sobs. Being a police woman, Jean knew she couldn't leave this, it needed investigating so she headed in the direction of the noise. It was a few minutes before she was faced with the sight of a girl on the edge of a bridge, the girl couldn't have been much older than 16, Jean approached the girl slowly knowing that any sudden movement could cause the girl to jump.

"Hello?" Jean called as she reached the bridge. The girl looked up, this voice was different to the ones she'd heard before. There was a kind tone to the voice she was now hearing and no anger at all. She turned her head slowly and looked at the woman who was getting closer towards her.

"Please go, you don't need to see this." The girl cried.

"No I don't, you don't need to do this though. Please come down." Jean begged the girl, the girl stared back, her big blue eyes almost piercing right through Jean.

"No, I need to do this." The girl insisted.

"I'm sure things aren't as bad as you think but if you don't want to get down yet then how about you tell me your name?"

"She doesn't really care, she just doesn't want this on her conscious." A voice called out to the girl.

"No, go away to wherever you planned to go tonight. You don't care, why would you care what happened to me?"

"I do care, I'm a police officer so it's my job to protect people and right now it's you who needs protecting. I have a son who was once your age, if he was in this position then I'd have wanted someone to talk to him." Jean reasoned. For a while nothing changed, the girl continued to stare at the water and Jean continued to watch her like a hawk, having now totally forgotten about her anniversary meal now that something that was more important had come up.

"I'm... Marianna..."


	2. Chapter 2

"Hi Marianna, I'm Jean." Jean replied, pleased that the young girl seemed to be beginning to trust her.

"I need to do this." Marianna spoke again, "Please just go and let me do this."

"You won't do it, you're a coward." A voice shouted at Marianna.

"They don't stop taunting me." Marianna told Jean as she continued to stare forward.

"Who don't sweetie?" Jean asked.

"I don't know, I hear them but when I look I can't see anyone." Marianna admitted, the battle in her head intensifying as Jean seemed to genuinely care, part of her was screaming out just to put an end to it all but the other part was adamant that she wouldn't get the relief she so desperately craved.

"How about you come down from there and we can go back to my house if you want and we can have a chat, you can ignore everything that I say afterwards if it changes nothing?"

"Why do you care?"

"I care because I know that somewhere deep inside you don't really want this, I care because I know that there's a strong girl in there who's just lost her fighting spirit. I care because I know that you can get that back and be exactly who you want to be."

"Okay." Marianna gave in and stepped down from the edge of the bridge, Jean's words ringing through her head.

* * *

"Drink? Something to eat? You can make yourself comfy." Jean asked as she let the young girl into her home.

"No thank you." Marianna replied as she sat awkwardly at the end of one of the sofa.

"Well I'm making hot chocolate with marshmallows and lots of cream, are you sure you don't want one?"

"Of course you want one fatty." A voice whispered to her, she'd thought that she'd be safe in Jean's home but still they followed her.

"I'm sure. Is it just you in here?"

"Yeah, do you mind if I go and make a drink quickly?"

"Do what you want, it's your home." She replied bluntly.

"Okay, well you can watch the tv if you want or there's some magazines on the table. Are you okay with dogs?" Jean asked knowing that as soon as she opened the door that the dog would come running out and jump all over their guest.

"I'm fine with dogs." Marianna replied, a slight smile appearing on her face for the first time.

"That's because you are one." A voice told her.

"I'm not." Marianna insisted.

"What?" Jean asked.

"Nothing." Marianna replied, knowing that if she explained then Jean might see for herself whatever it was that these voices were.

"Okay, I'll be back soon."

* * *

Jean put the kettle on and then took her phone out of her bag to ring James, she took a step towards the door and saw Archie jumping over Marianna in the living room.

"Where are you Jeanie?" James asked his wife over the phone as he sat outside a restaurant on his own.

"There's been a problem, it's nothing for you to worry about and I'll fill you in later. Why don't you go and pick Charlie up from your mums and take him out for dinner and then I'll ring you when you can come back."

"If I didn't know you better then I'd think that you were having an affair."

"How did you figure it out?" Jean laughed and heard her husband laugh on the other end of the phone too.

"Brain of Britain me. Anyway I'll go pick Charlie up, love you."

"Love you too."

* * *

"Who was that?" Marianna asked as she appeared at the kitchen door.

"My husband, he's taking our son out for dinner." Jean replied as she picked up her newly made drink and moved back to the living room. "Archie, go and find your bone." Jean told the dog to stop him jumping all over them, before she turned back to Marianna, "I realise you don't know me at all and are probably feeling really uncomfortable right now, so how about I tell you about me before we chat about earlier?"

"Yes please." Marianna whispered.

"Well my name is Jean Hathaway, I work for Oxfordshire police. I have two sons, Chris is 29 and is from my previous marriage, he's married and expecting a baby. Charlie is my other son, he's just turned five. I've been married to his dad for 6 years and today is our anniversary." Jean told the young girl.

"It's her anniversary, see she has far better things to be doing than sitting here with you."

"I'm Marianna, my old friends used to call me Ari though. I'm 15, I have a twin called Hattie, I haven't seen her in years though. My parents couldn't cope with twins so I was put into care, not even the people who were supposed to love me could."

"Why do you think they would love you? You're a cow."

"I'm sure they did love you Ari, can I call you that?" Jean asked as she saw Marianna's head lift a little, she hadn't been called that since she was little and in her first foster home, who'd had to let her go when she reached 7.

"Yeah."

"Can we talk about what happened tonight?" Jean asked, seeing Ari tense up as she mentioned it.

"I just wanted it to stop, I need it to stop." Ari began getting more and more distressed.

"You tell her what you're thinking then she's going to figure out what a nutter you are and throw you out."

"Wanted what to stop honey?"

"The voices. They don't stop, I turn around and no ones there, they hide from me. Maybe if they didn't hide then I could stand up to them and fix this but I can't."

"Are these voices still there now?" Jean asked gently.

"You've done it now, she thinks you're mad you idiot." A voice screamed at her. "You're so stupid." Marianna burst into tears as the voices continued to throw abuse at her.

"Yeah. I thought that they'd leave me alone here, you haven't let them in have you?" Ari shouted at Jean, backing herself into a corner of the room and sitting down, her small body now visibly shaking. "No sweetie I haven't, I wouldn't do that." Jean replied.

"Of course she hasn't, you're so stupid. You haven't realised yet, have you? You can't escape us, we're in your head."


	3. Chapter 3

"Make it stop. Make it stop Jean." Marianna screamed as she began ripping at her own hair. "Make them go away." Jean bent down to the girl and prized her hands away from her head before wrapping the young girl in her arms.

"Shhh." Jean soothed her. "You're okay, I'm here and I'm not going to let anything bad happen to you." Marianna seemed to quieten down a little as she held onto Jean for dear life. Archie, seemingly thinking he was missing out on some excitement, ran into the room and scrambled at Jean's feet in a desperate attempt to get into the hug too. "Are you tired?" Jean asked quietly.

"Yeah." Marianna whispered in response.

"Would you like to go up to my room and have a lie down?" Jean asked, and got a nod in response. Jean took the girls hand, as Marianna seemed to get some sort of comfort from human contact. "I'll be just downstairs if you need anything, just call okay. James and Charlie will be home soon too so don't worry if you hear the door."

Jean walked back down the stairs and walked back into the kitchen.

"Hey baby." James answered his phone.

"Have you picked Charlie up?" Jean asked.

"Yeah, we've just left Nana's."

"Can you come home instead of going out for dinner, I know it's our anniversary but we can celebrate at the weekend instead. Tell Charlie I'll cook him whatever he wants for dinner."

"You're worrying me, we'll be home in 5."

"Love you." Jean replied as she put the phone down and sat back down on the sofa, pulling her laptop onto her lap.

* * *

"We're home." James called from the door and next thing she knew, Charlie had bounced onto her.

"What's Grandad been giving you?" Jean laughed at how hyper her young son was.

"I can't tell you, it's our secret." Charlie replied, putting his finger over his lips as if to prove a point. "Can I have chicken nuggets for tea?"

"Of course you can mister, how about you go and play in your bedroom while I talk to daddy?"

"Then will you come and play with me mummy?"

"I'm doing your dinner silly, I will after tea though." Jean replied as she watched her young son nod at her and then run off up the stairs.

"What's up Jean?" James asked as he wrapped his arms around his wife.

"I was on my way to meet you and I heard screaming, I went to investigate and I saw a young girl on the edge of a bridge. I managed to talk her down and get her back here, she's hearing voices James."

"Where is she?" James asked.

"Having a lie down in our room. She was really distressed, she started pulling her hair out James..."

"And you've let our son go up there when there's a stranger who's clearly a danger to herself and possibly others?!" James asked, the anger and worry clear in his voice.

"She's not going to hurt Charlie. She's 16 James and she needs help."

"Well where are her parents?" James asked, trying to point out that she wasn't their responsibility.

"She's in care James, she needs our help."

"No, if she's as bad as you're saying she is then she needs professional help."

"NO, LEAVE ME ALONE. GO AWAY." They heard from upstairs and ran up the stairs towards their bedroom where they were faced with Charlie at the door and Marianna with a heavy book in her hand and blood coming from a cut, only just visible from under her hairline.

"Charlie, go and play. Everything's fine."

"Shall I go and get my teddy first aid kit, we can bandage her back up?" Charlie asked, not overly sure what was going on.

"No, Daddy and I will bandage her up and then I'll come and sort your dinner out." Jean told her son as she stood staring at Marianna who was stood watching out the window, assessing how much damage she could do to herself by jumping out of it. Jean knew that this wasn't going to be easy and it was no where near as simple as she'd told her son, she just hoped that Charlie would accept it without any further questions and leave, and that James would help her sort this and get over the worry in his for Charlie because Jean was considering her son and husband too and was trying to do what was best for everyone. Right now though, she didn't know what that was.


	4. Chapter 4

James features lightened slightly as he watched the teenager break down in tears in front of him. Never had he seen someone so utterly broken, and he'd been a police officer for over 15 years. Jean took a back seat and watched as James moved forward and gently took the book from Marianna's hands. Marianna looked up at him for a second, the vulnerability plastered across her face broke James' heart, it was a look that he'd seen before but at a pale in comparison level, across his songs face. That was when he knew that he had to do something.

"Marianna, do you feel sick or dizzy?" James asked, trying to figure out if she was concussed. Marianna stared at him expressionlessly, of course she felt sick, the amount of tears she'd cried had made sure of that.

"I'm going to go and get you a glass of water and a first aid kit to sort that out." James told the two women in the room.

"Take Charlie's dinner out of the over baby please."

"Okay, I'll see if mum can take him tonight too." James replied as he left the room and walked down the stairs.

James took the tray out of the oven and laid it down for a moment as he got the stuff that he'd come down for and taken it back up to his wife.

"Charlie, dinner time baby." James called up the stairs.

"Coming." Charlie replied as he ran down the stairs as fast as his little legs could carry him.

* * *

"Who's that upstairs?" Charlie asked, his mouth full of partially chewed chips.

"Charlie Hathaway, what has your mummy told you about talking when your mouth is full?" James scolded his son before he answered the question, "Marianna is a friend of mummy's."

"Is she okay, she screamed?" Charlie asked, confused as to what was going on.

"She's fine, you know when you have a nightmare and scream?" James asked his son as he bent down next to Charlie, who had nodded in response. "Well Marianna had a nightmare and she screamed because she was scared, only she didn't have me and your mum to crawl into bed with, that's why mummy is reminding her that it wasn't real." James tried to explain in terms of something Charlie would recognise that was vaguely similar to what Marianna was actually experiencing. "Your going to stay with Nana and Granddad tonight Charlie, and you'll come back here before school in the morning so we can say hello to you, we just don't want Marianna to have another nightmare and wake you up, especially when you've got to show some new reception children around."

* * *

"Here, have this." Jean told Marianna as she passed the girl the plastic cup of water. She was glad that James had chosen the plastic cup, after all it couldn't be used as a weapon. "Sorry it's plastic but they're what we use when Charlie's around." Jean lied.

"Thanks."

"See, they're only giving you water. They think you're fat too."

"Can I take a look at that cut on your head Ari?" Jean asked only to receive no reply, instead she picked up a wipe and began wiping the blood away gently before putting some savlon on the cut and putting a plaster over it.

Charlie came bounding up the stairs and into his parent's room, where Jean and Marianna was.

"Nana is here mummy." Charlie told his mother.

"Okay, be good baby and I'll see you tomorrow. Love you lots and lots." Jean told her son as she pulled Charlie into a hug and kissed his cheek.

"I will, bye."

* * *

James walked back up the stairs, he was happier know with the knowledge that his son was safe but he still feared for his wife's safety and also Marianna's. When he reached his bedroom door he saw Marianna asleep on the bed but laying close to Jean, as Jean gently stroked her head. For a moment everything seemed calm, for a moment she wasn't a unpredictable stranger in his home but someone who needed help that he wife could give. From outside the window Jean could see the flash of lights and then James looking sheepish at the door.

"What have you done James?" Jean asked angrily as she could just make out the ambulance outside their house.

"I had to."


	5. Chapter 5

James ran back down the stairs and opened the door to the two paramedics that had just rung the doorbell.

"We had reports of a girl being a harm to herself." The young male paramedic specified as he looked at James.

"Yeah, just upstairs." James said as he allowed the paramedics in and then closed the door behind them, before leading them up the stairs to his and Jean's room.

"Can we come in?" The female paramedic asked as she saw Jean continue to hug the teenager and Archie lay across the girls legs, refusing to let her move.

"Yeah, if it's okay with your honey." Jean asked Marianna, who didn't seem to even hear what Jean was saying to her as she moved slightly and stroked Archie. "Yeah, you can."

"Hello princess, can you tell me your name please?" The male paramedic asked gently, and like Jean, got no response. "No? Okay, well I'm Harry and this is Alice. We're here to check that you're okay, is that okay with you?" He tried again and again received no response, instead she reached to stroke Archie again and smiled slightly when he moved to allow Marianna access to his tummy for a belly rub.

"We need to take her up to the hospital for a psych assessment, we can't do that. You can come though." Alice quietly told Jean, as James stood awkwardly watching from the door. "I know this is hard, and your husband is clearly struggling."

"He's not struggling with this, he's just being an idiot." Jean replied bluntly and loud enough for James to hear.

"I'm sorry Jean but I had to." James told her sheepishly.

"You keep saying that but I'm still finding it hard to believe, this isn't about you James, it's not about me and it's not about Charlie or Archie. This is about Marianna." Jean told him, just about managing to stop herself raising her voice but maintaining the fury in her voice.

"Marianna we need to take you to the hospital but don't worry your mum can come with you if you want?" This time Marianna acknowledged that she was spoken to and nodded as she looked at Jean anxiously, who hadn't even batted an eyelid to being called her mum.

"I'm not leaving you honey." Jean reassured Marianna as they both stood up, on instinct Jean took the vulnerable teenagers hand as they walked down the stairs and out to the ambulance together. James followed awkwardly, still unsure of what he was meant to be doing now. "You stay away James." Jean hissed at him, James had never seen her this angry with him and that's how he knew he had a lot to do to even come close to making this okay.

"I'm sorry." Marianna spoke quietly as fresh tears ran down her face from hearing the pure venom in Jean's voice that had been directed at her husband on their anniversary, which she had ruined.

"You should have jumped while you had the chance." A voice screamed at her.

"You ruin everything. Why don't you do everyone a favor and jump off a cliff? You're a disgrace to humanity anyway."

"No! Leave me alone!" Marianna suddenly screamed as she pulled away from Jean and tried to run down the street, to where she could see a busy road. Harry ran after her as Jean stood frozen, watching Marianna sprint down the street. Jean felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see Alice stood there.

"Your husband did the right thing Mrs Hathaway, Marianna needs to see a doctor for her own safety." Alice told her softly.

"I know." Jean sighed, finally admitting defeat on this one while still feeling the fury at James, the worry that she felt whenever she wasn't with Charlie and the uncertainty and worry over Marianna. Jean was on an emotional rollercoaster, one that maybe wasn't as bad as the one Marianna was on, but still one that in that moment, she couldn't see the end of.


End file.
